India's Tata puts Jaguar, Land Rover back on track

Hard work and tough decisions have combined with more favourable market conditions to help India's Tata Motors revive British luxury marques Jaguar and Land Rover, analysts say.Loss-making former owner, US giant Ford, sold just under 50,000 Land Rovers and nearly 15,700 Jaguars in 2007, shortly before it offloaded the brands to India's top vehicle maker in a $2.3 billion deal.

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Jaguar Land Rover has announced record UK sales for 2012, but what has been the secret of its success? A stagnant economy with high unemployment and, even for those in work, a lack of job security, might not seem like market conditions conducive to selling luxury cars.

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Indian automobile company Tata Motors (TTM) acquired British car maker Land Rover in 2008 from Ford Motor Company (F), along with the Jaguar business. Following the acquisition, sales for the luxury sports utility vehicle (SUV) maker Land Rover dropped below the previously achieved 200,000 mark.

India's top vehicle maker Tata Motors has selected a partner to build an assembly plant for its luxury British car brands Jaguar and Land Rover in China, a senior executive said on Tuesday."We are waiting for the necessary regulatory approvals," Tata Motors finance chief C. Ramakrishnan told reporters, without giving any further details."An announcement will be made very soon," he added.China has emerged as a key market for Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR), whose sales in Europe remain weak due to the current economic uncertainty.

India's leading vehicle maker Tata Motors may raise 700 million dollars through a share offering as part of a drive to cut its debt, a report said Thursday.Senior officials from the company, part of the tea-to-steel Tata Group, have made presentations to foreign investors and mutual funds about the offering, the DNA newspaper said.Tata Motors, which owns the luxury Jaguar and Land Rover marques, said in June it would raise 47 billion rupees (one billion dollars) by issuing shares, bonds and other debt instruments after getting shareholders' approval.

Luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover has launched a £1.0 billion ($1.6 billion) bond sale, the company's Indian parent Tata Motors said, as part of a drive to refinance debt and develop its operations.A successful sale would highlight the profit-making firm's ability to raise debt without relying on the support of Tata Motors, India's leading vehicle maker.The money is earmarked for refinancing existing debt as well as for "general corporate purposes," Jaguar Land Rover said in the statement on Monday.

India's top vehicle maker Tata Motors on Thursday posted a rise in quarterly sales but stagnant profits as rising raw material costs affected its bottom line.The auto giant reported a consolidated net profit of 20 billion rupees ($444 million dollars) in the three months to the end of June, up 0.6 percent year-on-year from 19.88 billion rupees.Analysts had expected profit around the 21 billion rupees mark.Sales for the April-June period jumped 24 percent to 333.91 billion rupees, said the company, which owns British luxury car brands Jaguar and Land Rover.